[LoveFifteen]

Peak Pierce is so overrated. She couldn't even win the tournament against an opponent in the final with no real offensive weapons. Peak Pierce is good, but I'm sick of people acting like it was the most unbeatable tennis of all time.

[thrust]

Originally Posted by Morning Morgan

ASV>Nervous Pierce in first French Open final

NONSENSE! ASV was the better clay court player. Only Graf and Seles, at their best, were better.

[thrust]

Originally Posted by LoveFifteen

Peak Pierce is so overrated. She couldn't even win the tournament against an opponent in the final with no real offensive weapons. Peak Pierce is good, but I'm sick of people acting like it was the most unbeatable tennis of all time.

SO TRUE AND WELL PUT!

[Matt01]

Originally Posted by LoveFifteen

Peak Pierce is so overrated. She couldn't even win the tournament against an opponent in the final with no real offensive weapons. Peak Pierce is good, but I'm sick of people acting like it was the most unbeatable tennis of all time.

That player who lost the RG final in 1994 had nothing to do with Peak Pierce.
And as for that "opponent with no real offensive weapons": That is the same player who beat Graf and Seles in Slam finals (and has a positive H2H with Serena ).

[spencercarlos]

Originally Posted by faboozadoo15

YES. It's unbelievable she has 3 RG titles, same as Monica. And none for Conchita.

Conchita winning Roland Garros, when she never beat Graf or Seles on clay. Good laught

[spencercarlos]

Originally Posted by spiceboy

Unbelievable? It's not like she randomly won those titles. She reached the semifinals 10 times there, played 6 finals. Won half of them. She was clearly at home in Roland Garros.

Arantxa was amazing at Roland Garros, so consistent performer. She could and beat everybody there.

[spencercarlos]

Originally Posted by Matt01

That player who lost the RG final in 1994 had nothing to do with Peak Pierce.
And as for that "opponent with no real offensive weapons": That is the same player who beat Graf and Seles in Slam finals (and has a positive H2H with Serena ).

Its easy to say you are not at your peak when losing but you are when you are winning.

That being said, you can go back and check Australian Open final 1995 and see the bunch of errors Arantxa made that day, while Pierce was on her game.

Funny that only a couple of weeks later "peak Australian Open winner" Pierce lost to Graf 62 62 at the Paris Indoors final.

[terjw]

I remember that. I also remember them interviewing Graf after getting beaten like that. They were trying to get her to comment on howPierce was steamrolling everyone and had just done the same to her and that she was surely a cert for the title. And Graf simply said she was having a dream run and playing really well but the real test was if she can go on to keep playing like that. I don't ever remember Steffi lavishing praise on any player who beat her. But she was right that playing like Pierce had done in the FO up till then that year is one thing. Keeping that level up is another.

And of course it was not to be that she could keep that level up for the whole tournament. Although of course if any player was good at disrupting an opponent and making her opponent look bad it was ASV.

[Juanes]

Originally Posted by LoveFifteen

Peak Pierce is so overrated. She couldn't even win the tournament against an opponent in the final with no real offensive weapons. Peak Pierce is good, but I'm sick of people acting like it was the most unbeatable tennis of all time.

we are talking about peak, don´t we? Peak means the best tennis not the average performance.... hardly you can count as peak the match where Mary lost...

[TNT2009]

I never seen ASV played in my life. I don't know how she was such a GOAT (10 SFs with 3 titles) at the French.

[Miss Atomic Bomb]

So what you are saying is, Peak Pierce was straight setted by ASV?

[jj74]

Originally Posted by Diamondtieva

Pity she didn't win the title. In a way Stosur was the same at the 2010 French. She didn't lose so few games of course, but she overcame Henin-Serena-Jankovic...then lost to Schiavone .

This must be a joke, are you seriously comparing Francesca with Arantxa.
Stosur was the clear favourite in her final, Pierce was not the favourite, Arantxa was consistently one of the best clay court players on the nineties (when top players actually were good at clay). Yes Pierce destroyed all her rivals, including a very sub par Graf, but on clay against an in form Arantxa the probabilities of end losing were very very high.

I know most people dislike Arantxa's game, and a lot of people here have a tendency to belittle her, but she was very consistent and mentally strong. She even has good h2h against the Williams, yes i know Serena and Venus weren't nowhere they will be after, but Arantxa was far from her peak too.
She didn't have the explosive tennis Pierce had, but she was far more consistent, and it's not a surprise she end having a better career

[Olórin]

Originally Posted by Juanes

we are talking about peak, don´t we? Peak means the best tennis not the average performance.... hardly you can count as peak the match where Mary lost...

That's the point. Peak Pierce is ultimately ineffective if she can't maintain form for less than two weeks and leaves for the most important match. That's just useless.

[The Dawntreader]

Originally Posted by Olórin

That's the point. Peak Pierce is ultimately ineffective if she can't maintain form for less than two weeks and leaves for the most important match. That's just useless.

Might as well call her 'Novelty Pierce'.

[SUPER]

Originally Posted by jj74

She even has good h2h against the Williams, yes i know Serena and Venus weren't nowhere they will be after, but Arantxa was far from her peak too.

Yep. She beat Venus in RG2000 before her amazing streak that summer, although I didn`t see that match (and she played baaad in the SF). She also beat Venus and Serena in Sydney98. Not peak sisters, but it means something